If he beats the veteran Ferreira to kick off the New Year, we may be seeing him in some main events where rounds four and five will be in play. But the first order of business in Los Angeles is getting the job done against a fighter who enters the Intuit Dome on the heels of back-to-back Performance of the Night knockouts of Michael Johnson and Mateusz Rebecki but is also 39 years old and plagued with long layoffs throughout his career, leaving him with only three fights in the last three years. It’s got to be hard to get a read on the Brazilian, but Dawson is keeping it simple: he’s preparing for the best version of Ferreira.
RELATED: Dawson’s Athlete Profile
“I think if you prepare for the best guy you could get, if the worst guy shows up, it’s a good night,” said Dawson. “So I’m preparing for the best Diego. I’ve been really, really impressed with his last two, and, to be honest with you, I’ve always been impressed with Diego. I’ve always thought that he was a really, really good fighter and a very underrated fighter. He’s not getting blown out of the water by really anybody; he’s always in close fights, he’s always at the top of the division and we see what happens when you don’t put him at the top of the division. When you give him guys that aren’t at that top tier, he runs through them. So I’m really excited to see how I stack up against him. And the main thing I’m really excited for is the new problem that I have to solve. He’s got really good jiu-jitsu, he’s got really good get-up, he’s got really good cardio. I think these are new problems that I’m going to have to deal with in the later rounds and I’m really excited to see how I do.”
